


Crash and Burn

by quicksilversquared



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Hurt and comfort, Minor Character Death Mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-06-03 15:03:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19466455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksilversquared/pseuds/quicksilversquared
Summary: Everyone in Paris had always assumed that if Hawkmoth were to die, it would be mid-battle with the superheroes, or maybe in a jail cell years down the road, after being defeated. No one expected him to die suddenly in a car crash on a sunny afternoon.Least of all, his son.





	1. Inferno

Adrien was pulled out of class at two fifteen Wednesday afternoon and driven straight to the hospital by a solemn-faced Officer Raincomprix.

"There was a car accident," Sabrina's father told him as they drove. "Your father was coming back from a meeting with an investor and when they were crossing an intersection, another car crashed into his. At the moment, it seems that a mechanical failure from the other car is to blame, but we're still investigating, of course."

Adrien could only swallow and nod. "And my father?"

Officer Raincomprix swallowed hard as they came to a stop at a stoplight. "I'm sorry, Adrien. He didn't make it."

The bottom dropped out of Adrien's stomach as he stared at the officer in disbelief. His father. _Gone_.

The rest of the ride went by in a blur, and then Officer Raincomprix was escorting Adrien inside the hospital, handing him over to a nurse before leaving. Adrien had to wonder why they had even bothered bringing him here- if his father was dead, what was the _point?_ They weren't going to make him look at the body, were they?- instead of just telling him at the school and bringing him home.

Adrien felt sick at the thought of having to look at his father's body. He didn't need his last image of his father to be dead and broken. Not that his current last image was exactly top-notch, either- he and his father had gotten into an argument that morning (as per normal these days, honestly), and of course his father hadn't been home for lunch- but at least his father had been _alive_ then.

Thankfully, they didn't show him any bodies right away. Instead, they brought him to a small, private waiting room and a staff member asked a few questions- did Adrien know how his father wanted to be buried, were there other family members around, did he want to see his father before the coroner took him away (no, no, and _definitely_ no)- before handing Adrien a handful of pamphlets for funeral homes and grief counselors. Adrien took them, feeling more than a little overwhelmed.

Surely he wasn't going to be expected to make all of the arrangements. Maybe he was almost an adult- he would be turning eighteen in the fall, and that was less than half a year off- but he was still in school, he had end-of-year exams to prepare for, and he had never felt like less of an adult in his life.

"Since you're underage, we can send over a specialist to help you make arrangements," the head nurse told him. "They're familiar with the process and can guide you through it. That doesn't have to happen right away, though, since you'll need some time to process everything." She patted his hand as she stood up. "I think that's almost everything. Another nurse will be in soon to give you a few more things. If you think of any questions, you can ask her."

Adrien just nodded, turning the pamphlets over in his hands as she left. They were much more cheerful than seemed fitting, considering that the people that would be looking at them had recently had someone _die_ on them. Maybe some people would have been expecting it- if people were very old, or very sick- but he had thought that his father would be around for a while still.

But in a screech of tires and crash of metal, that was gone.

Before Adrien could say anything, the door opened again and another nurse came in. She was carrying a large box under her arm. She shut the door behind her, then turned to Adrien.

"Adrien, I'm sorry for your loss," the new nurse told him, shutting the door behind her. "But we wanted to get this to you- it's all things of your father's, some things that the police collected and others that we took from the body here."

Adrien numbly took the box from the nurse, glancing inside. Some things had been on his father's person, while others had clearly been recovered from the wrecked car before it was hauled away. There were papers from the glove compartment, Adrien could tell, and his father's briefcase and wallet, and a handful of loose odds and ends. Most were things that he recognized or at least that made sense- his father's watch, a notepad, the keys for the house, a handful of now-stained fabric swatches.

All except for one thing, an odd purple pin that he could just barely see under everything else. Adrien balanced the box on the chair next to him as he reached in, curiously tugging the pin up out of the rest of the things so that he could get a better look at it.

The moment he did, he regretted it.

He had never seen the brooch before in person, of course. But he had seen _pictures_ of it, drawings done by the temple monks and kept by Master Fu, and the muted thrum of power running through it left absolutely no doubt in Adrien's mind as to what it was- the Butterfly Miraculous.

The Butterfly Miraculous, which his father had had. His father had been _Hawkmoth_. Hawkmoth, who Adrien had been fighting as Chat Noir for several years now.

And now he was dead.

Adrien let the Miraculous drop back into the box, back into the mess of paperwork and keys and everyday things. It lay there, staring Adrien in the face. He stared back, trying to make sense- _any_ sense- of the discovery.

He had known that his father wasn't a particularly good person. Gabriel Agreste had been strict and overbearing past any reasonable point. He had been controlling and demanding and demeaning, judgmental and quick to dismiss people without regard to their feelings. He was _exactly_ the kind of person that Adrien would imagine a supervillain to be, so Adrien wasn't sure why he was so surprised.

Adrien had been living in the same house as his arch enemy for _years_.

"There were two other people in the car," the nurse said suddenly, pulling Adrien out of his spinning thoughts. "A Gerald Alekseev and a Nathalie Sancoeur. I've been told that they've worked for your family for years. Mr. Alekseev had a broken arm but no other major injuries, as he was on the far side of the car when it was hit. Ms. Sancoeur has gone into surgery."

"Can I see her once she comes out?" Adrien asked at once, suddenly possessed by the urge to talk to Nathalie and see what she knew. Because she _had_ to know about his father, right? There was no way that she could have missed it, not when the two of them had worked together and she was in charge of scheduling him. "...are her injuries bad?"

The nurse hesitated. "They... well, we'll know more once the surgery is done. As for seeing her... I suppose, if you make it quick. She probably won't be very alert for a while."

"I'll be fast," Adrien promised, knowing that he would only have a couple questions. If she had known about his father's supervillain activities, he wouldn't want to talk to her. If she miraculously _didn't_ know, then he would leave her to rest. "Will it be long?"

This time, the only answer that he got was a shrug.

The nurse vanished, and Adrien turned his attention back to the butterfly brooch in the box. Part of him hoped that it was simply a fake, a replica, something modeled off of the pin in his father's Miraculous book, but no matter how much he hoped, there was no fooling himself. His father hadn't made _other_ replicas, after all, and why would he be wearing one of them even if he had?

Besides, he had felt the power in that Miraculous when he held it, and it had felt _just_ like when he had handled other dormant Miraculous while handing them out. There was no mistaking that feeling.

"Plagg, what do I _do?_ " Adrien asked quietly, slumping into the chair next to the box. "What am I meant to do now?"

Plagg poked his head out. "Huh? Didn't that nurse say to wait until Nathalie is out of surgery? Just sit, then."

"No, not about _that_. About _this._ " Adrien reached into the box for the brooch again, lifting it out just far enough for Plagg to see. This time, he could see some blood on the Miraculous. "Hawkmoth is gone. What- I won't have to give you up, will I?"

Plagg hissed in surprise. "That's- that's Nooroo's Miraculous! Oh- oh _god_ , kid, that's- not great news to find out right now. Uh." He paused, and Adrien could feel him fidgeting as he tried to come up with an answer. "...uh, tell Ladybug, maybe? But there's no rush right now, at least. The danger has passed. But we _should_ try to find the Peacock. Your father must have it somewhere."

Adrien felt sick. He had forgotten that there was another Miraculous on Hawkmoth's side. It had belonged to the elusive Mayura, and- well, who could _that_ be? They hadn't seen the Peacock often- and in the past couple years, it only came into play every couple months, far less frequently than she had when Mayura initially appeared- which suggested that there was maybe some drawback to using it- Master Fu had thought that he had remembered something about a possible curse on that Miraculous- and it could be _anywhere_.

Except...it really couldn't.

His father wouldn't have worked with just anyone, Adrien knew that. It would have been somebody who he trusted, who was loyal enough to not tell anyone about his supervillain activities and to even _join_ him in those activities. And that narrowed it down to... well, just one person, really. And that one person was currently in surgery.

Oh, god. He was _really_ going to be sick.

"Kid. Kid, focus." Adrien felt something small kicking his cheek and turned to see Plagg floating right next to him. "One thing at a time. I'm not a mind reader. Talk."

Adrien let out a breath, trying to center himself like Master Fu had taught him. It was harder than ever before, since he had never had to deal with anything this serious. "My father is dead."

"How do you feel about that? Ignoring all other factors at the moment."

Adrien tried to think about it. He and his father had had an increasingly rocky relationship over the past couple of years, with his father trying to restrict his freedom and Adrien doing his best to rebel. "Shocked. I wasn't expecting it- not that anyone can expect it, really. I don't- I don't know if I'm sad. I just- I don't know. I thought that one day, I would move out and maybe stop talking to him, but he would still be there. He would still exist, if I ever felt the need for some sort of closure." Adrien sniffed, wiping at his eyes with his sleeve. "Now what am I supposed to do, go have an argument with a gravestone?"

Plagg snorted. "You could. Or a portrait, you certainly have enough of those around the house. Okay, so next discovery- the Butterfly Miraculous."

"My father was Hawkmoth, there's no other way to interpret that." Adrien frowned and wiped away another tear before it could fall. "He decided to become a supervillain. He endangered me a _lot,_ even ignoring the times when I was Chat Noir. There were akumas who went after _Adrien._ If I ignore who he was to me and just think that Hawkmoth is dead- that's a good thing. I was getting _really_ sick of akuma fights interrupting my day. And the public will wonder. Ladybug and I will have to make an announcement." Adrien groaned. " _That's_ going to be fun."

"Okay, ignore your superhero duties for a moment," Plagg ordered. "You and Ladybug are a _team_. She can handle the press. And that doesn't have to happen right away, like you said. If you don't think that you'll be able to handle a press conference, then have her make an excuse for you. You can be 'out of town' to the public. Though I would recommend that you at least tell her _why_ you don't want to be there."

Adrien frowned, puzzled. "So I should tell her who I am?"

Plagg rolled his eyes at Adrien. "Not necessarily. Not if you don't want to do it right away. You can tell her that your father was Hawkmoth without saying _who_ he was and who you are. Because, kid... if you tell the public that Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth, you're going to have that hanging over your head for the rest of your life. There'll be people who only see you as Hawkmoth's son. He's dead. It'll only punish you."

Adrien ducked his head. Plagg had a point, but at the same time it just didn't seem _right_. His father's legacy would continue untarnished, with people looking up to him and calling him a great man, and he didn't _deserve_ that.

But Adrien didn't want to be known as Hawkmoth's son, either.

"If it makes you feel better, I bet that Ladybug will say the same thing," Plagg continued. "She'll see the sense in it. If she doesn't, we can go to Fu. Or we can go to Fu first. Whatever."

Adrien nodded. He would feel better about it if another, less biased superheroes could make the final call for him. "I- I can handle that."

Plagg looked pleased. "Good. Now- you freaked on me when I mentioned the Peacock."

"Nathalie is Mayura," Adrien told him. "She's the only person that makes sense. I saw her as a second mom. I can't- I can't believe that she would _do_ that."

"On the plus side, at least she should know all of the answers that you're looking for," Plagg offered weakly after a second. "Though they might not be the answers that you were hoping to hear."

Adrien snorted. "Yeah, I think _that's_ a given."

It took several hours before Nathalie was awake and alert enough to have visitors. In that time, Adrien had started to get messages from his friends- calls and texts and voice messages, starting out curious and then turning concerned as the news broke that Gabriel Agreste was dead. Adrien glanced at them, starting to feel overwhelmed all over again. There were so many of them, and it wasn't that their support was unappreciated, but he just- he just _couldn't_.

He shut off his phone.

"In the past, I've seen people appoint one person to share the news with others," Plagg said from where he was curled up in Adrien's hair. "Then you don't have to repeat the same thing over and over a bunch of times, because that person will take care of it for you. And then they can deal with all of the questions instead of having you get overwhelmed."

Adrien nodded. That made sense. "I might have Nino do that, but not...not right now. I can't yet."

"You might want to send a message before you leave here so that you don't get home to a million people waiting for you." Plagg burrowed into Adrien's hair. "That would be even worse. If you want, I can type up the message."

Adrien couldn't help but feel nearly swept away with gratitude for Plagg. Normally his kwami was grumpy and demanding, but he knew when Adrien needed his support and adjusted his attitude accordingly. "Thanks, Plagg."

"M. Sancoeur can see you for a couple minutes," a nurse told Adrien, popping her head out of Nathalie's room. "But not for long, surgery is never fun. We would _never_ normally do this, but since you lost your father..."

Adrien just nodded and headed in.

Nathalie was _not_ in good shape. She was bruised and covered in bandages, her hair a mess and a distinctly un-Nathalie-like look on her face. She was hooked up to all sorts of tubes and machines, things beeping and whirring as they constantly monitored her condition. She looked up when he entered, confusion on her face. "Adrien?"

"Did they already tell you about Father?" Adrien asked as the nurse excused herself, closing the door behind herself and leaving Adrien and Nathalie alone. "They said he didn't make it."

Nathalie sucked in a breath, then let it out, slumping into the bed as her eyes closed. "Right. I- can see that. The car hit him directly. I'm sorry, Adrien."

"S'not your fault." Adrien shifted from foot to foot, uncertain, before deciding to jump right in to his _actual_ questions. He didn't know when the nurses would come back and escort him out, and he _needed_ answers. "They gave me his things."

Nathalie just nodded.

"I found the Butterfly Miraculous."

This time, he got a reaction. Nathalie's head whipped to the side, her eyes wide. She slumped when she saw the look on his face. "I don't suppose I can convince you that it's just a model?"

"I felt the power in it."

Nathalie only sighed. "Right."

"He was Hawkmoth and you're Mayura, aren't you?" Adrien demanded. "I know you are, there's no one else Father would have trusted."

"I- yes," Nathalie admitted, more readily than Adrien would have expected. He suspected that the painkillers from the surgery probably played a part. "I was Mayura. The Miraculous is cursed, or broken, or- I don't know. It couldn't be used often, not without serious consequences. You- your mom used it too much, and she fell into a cursed coma. Nothing we could do would break it, which is why your father wanted the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous. He led me to believe that that was the only solution. I thought that I was getting all of the information that he knew, so that I could make an informed decision. And… I missed Emilie, too. I wanted to help her."

Adrien's legs nearly buckled under him. His _mom_ had been tangled up in this, too? No. He didn't- he didn't want to believe _that_.

Nathalie kept talking, her voice in an emotionless monotone. "Once your father started talking about using potions and spells to expand his powers, I started questioning that. I had already transformed as Mayura a few times already at that point, going along with him to the battles. Then he finally shared his theory about a Guardian of the Miraculous that he could track down and interrogate to unlock more powers and get more Miraculous, and I- I wanted him to back down on the akumas and focus on finding the Guardian, to see if he could cure Emilie without using the ultimate power. I knew by that time that there would be a cost to the power- he hadn't let me know that before- and it wouldn't be good. And I _knew_ that Emilie would never have approved of that. She was a flawed person, sure…but she had her limits."

Adrien could vaguely feel Plagg patting his head as he stared at Nathalie, trying his best to not collapse to the ground.

"He refused. He thought that there was nothing that a Guardian could do on their own, and the ultimate power was the only option. Besides, the Guardian was proving hard to find and Emilie was declining fast. We argued about it, and I refused to transform for several months. And then... she died."

Plagg stilled very suddenly.

"Then the ultimate power _was_ the only option, and I knew that Emilie wouldn't have wanted us to use it. Whatever the cost was- it would be high, and she would have hated us for even _considering_ it. I argued with Gabriel, trying to get him to stop, because I thought that was what she would have wanted. He refused. We never- we never got along _quite_ the same after that." Nathalie's voice had gotten quieter. Clearly she was exhausted. "So I started playing up the effects that using the Peacock had on me, so that I wouldn't have to transform as often." She sighed, sinking into her pillows as her eyes drifted shut. Her voice was a barely audible murmur. "If he had shared the information about spells and a Guardian earlier, I still think- I still think it could have gone differently."

Before Adrien could say anything- before he could even gather his thoughts enough to even _think_ of what to say- a nurse knocked at the door before opening it and sticking her head in. "Adrien, we should probably leave Ms. Sancoeur to rest now."

Numbly, Adrien headed out of the room. The nurse guided him towards the exit, where a taxi waited. It whisked him back home, where, miraculously, nobody was waiting for him at the gates.

"I texted Nino on the way out," Plagg told Adrien once he had paid the driver and was headed inside. "He said once you're ready for company to let him know right away, but they'll give you your space ."

"I don't think I'm anywhere near ready." Adrien headed across the atrium, setting the box of his father's things down on a decorative chair and fishing the Butterfly out before heading into his father's office. "I just- Father is dead. Nathalie was a supervillain, too. I- I suspected that Mom was dead, too, after there weren't any leads for years and years, but I just got confirmation of that. And what was _she_ using the Miraculous for? It doesn't make sense!"

Plagg flew down to perch on the Butterfly Miraculous. "I could pull out Nooroo. He would know, probably. And he would know where the Peacock is being kept. We need to recover Duusu and help him."

Adrien set the Miraculous down on the desk, falling into Nathalie's desk chair and burying his face in his hands. He sat there for several seconds, trying to even out his breathing.

There was _so much_ to do. He had to tell Ladybug about Hawkmoth and they had to tell Paris, he had to find the Peacock and bring it to Master Fu, he had to get to the bottom of this whole mess and figure out the _whole_ truth, the truth that had been kept from him for so long. He had to make burial arrangements for his father and would be expected to set up a funeral, too, and probably talk at it, and that- that was the _last_ thing that he wanted to do. Then there would no doubt be things to get straightened out with the company, and he would have to deal with the whole running the household thing, and-

"One step at a time, kid," Plagg told him. "We'll find the Peacock, and Ladybug can take on the rest of the superhero stuff from there. I'm positive that she'll volunteer, if you just tell her that Hawkmoth was _your_ father. If you don't think your father deserves a funeral- and I can't blame you there- then don't. Your father will probably have lawyers who will take care of the burial, and same with the company. And you aren't eighteen- there's no _way_ that the city will make you take over the household. Maybe there'll be all sorts of annoying legal stuff for you to sign off on, but that's _it_."

Adrien managed a smile. "Since when are you the voice of reason?"

Plagg just sniffed. "Kid, I am a _god_. Are you _really_ going to question me?"

* * *

It wasn't hard to pull Nooroo out. In fact, it was the best part of Adrien's day so far. Seeing the formerly captive kwami pop into existence, spot Plagg, and shoot across the room cheering to glomp the cat god several meters back in the air put a smile on Adrien's face.

And Nooroo came with some good news: while Nathalie had gone along with Gabriel Agreste at first, she had been telling the truth when she said that she hadn't known all the details at first and then had tried to back out as much as she could by lying to Mr. Agreste and claiming that the Peacock was having _much_ worse effects on her than it actually was. It had been a dangerous gamble- after all, the Butterfly could sense emotions- but she had managed it.

Nooroo also knew where to find the damaged Peacock, along with a number of journals that both of Adrien's parents had kept. Adrien dove into them at once, deciding that it was best to learn everything else right away instead of putting it off. It was better to rip off a band-aid quickly, after all.

Several hours later- _many_ hours later- when the sun was starting to peek over the horizon again and Paris was starting to stir for a new day- Adrien was regretting the decision. A _lot_.

If he hadn't read the journals, he would have wondered why his mom had used the Miraculous, but he would have at least had his memories of her left, untarnished and comforting. Instead, he had read, and read, and read, and...

His parents had been planning on using the Miraculous to help advance themselves, to advance the company and take and take and _take_ , not being content with what they had _._ His mom had been part of it, a willing participant according to what she had written in the journals. She had been the one to work out several spells from the grimoire to boost the Miraculous' powers, and then it was one of those spells that sent her into a coma when the cursed Peacock Miraculous took too much energy from her body.

His mom had been putting on a face for him. What Adrien remembered- it wasn't truly _her_. Not according to the journals. Not if he was understanding the journal entries right.

"Kid, you gotta at least _try_ to sleep," Plagg said, appearing in front of Adrien's face when he moved to reach back towards the first journal, because what if he had misunderstood something? What if he was seeing something there that _wasn't_ true? His memories of his mom couldn't all just be a show on her part, could they? Maybe his father had manipulated her, and that was why she had acted the way she had with the Miraculous, or he had misunderstood- "Put the journals down, take the Miraculous with you, and go lay down. _Seriously._ "

It was not a good idea to try to argue with a tiny cheese-scented god. Adrien went, but he couldn't fall asleep. He stared at the ceiling, mind completely blank.

His entire _life_ had been flipped under him. How was he meant to process that?

The day passed with a few hours of troubled sleep, interrupted by some listless picking at food. By the time dusk fell again, Adrien knew that he had to get things off of his chest before he could get any further in processing. He had to tell _someone_ about his father being Hawkmoth.

(Well. Someone besides Plagg, that was.)

And that meant that Plagg had to contact Ladybug's kwami so that his partner would know that he wanted to meet up. Plagg did so without complaint or bargaining for more cheese, which, well. It was strange, but Adrien knew that his kwami was doing his best to be nice.

He just wished that- well, that it wasn't because of the circumstances.

It wasn't long before Plagg got a message in return, that Ladybug had to finish something up but she would be transformed in a couple minutes and would meet him in the usual spot. Adrien paced for a few minutes- he didn't want to transform early and then spend the time anxiously treading circles in their favorite beam of the Eiffel Tower, getting progressively more anxious with every minute that passed. It was _much_ better to wait a few minutes, then get there _after_ Ladybug did.

Plagg kicked him out the window after five minutes had passed, zipping into the ring and forcing the transformation. Chat Noir headed out, far quieter than he usually was. It didn't take long to cross the city, vaulting across streets and using the cover of night to make sure that no one spotted him and tried to wave him down for a picture or an autograph.

Normally he was more than willing to accommodate those kinds of requests. But this...this wasn't normal.

Chat Noir swallowed when he reached the bottom of the tower and spotted Ladybug, perched up high on the Eiffel Tower in their favorite spot. She was clearly scanning the city for threats while she waited for him, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

She wouldn't find anything. The time for akumas had passed, and now it was time to let her know that. He took one more steadying breath and then launched himself up into the air to join her.

Ladybug heard him land at once. She bounced to her feet in one graceful move, coming over to join him. Worry was written all over her lovely face. "Chat Noir! Is everything all right? Tikki said that she was getting some really weird emotions from Plagg. I've been so worried."

Chat Noir managed a smile for her. "The two of us are all right. But..." He took a deep breath, readying himself to tell her. "My father died suddenly. There- there was an accident."

Ladybug's expression turned distressed in a heartbeat and she reached out for him. "Oh, kitty!"

"That's not even the worst part," Chat Noir added, watching his partner's expression turn confused. He reached into his suit's pocket. "When the hospital gave me his things, _this_ was on him."

He pulled out the Butterfly Miraculous. It took a second, and then Ladybug recognized the pin. Her expression _dropped_ and she flung herself at him, wrapping him up in a hug at once. "He was Hawkmoth! Oh, Chat Noir, that's terrible!"

"Yeah, it was a bit of a shocker," Chat Noir agreed, resting his head against Ladybug's. "Two shocks within the span of about thirty minutes. And it gets worse."

Ladybug looked positively distressed. "Worse?"

"Yep." Chat Noir reached into his pocket again and Ladybug leaned back enough to see the cursed Peacock sitting in his hand. "Mayura was a- a friend of the family. She went along with his plan at first, but according to both her and Nooroo, she was a lot more reluctant maybe halfway through, when she realized that what my father wanted could have been accomplished another way."

"What he wanted to accomplish?"

Chat Noir winced. "Yeah. And that's the worst part. My mom used the Peacock- apparently she had some not-so-great intentions, too, really selfish ones- and got cursed, going into a coma and continuing to decline. He wanted to undo the curse. Na- Mayura realized that instead of using the ultimate power, which she didn't think my mom would want, they could have tried asking the Guardian to undo the curse. My father apparently was too stuck in his ways at that point and refused. And several months after that, it was too late for anything _but_ the ultimate power to work and he secretly buried her. I had no idea. I thought that she was still missing."

Ladybug was looking positively ill. "Oh, _kitty_. That's- that's _awful._ How are you even functioning right now?"

"What's functioning? I've forgotten."

"Oh, _kitty_." Ladybug's hug got tighter. "That's _awful_. That's- I'm sure it's hard enough to deal with suddenly losing a family member by itself, and then all of the rest on _top_..."

Chat Noir buried his face in her hair. His voice came out muffled. "At least we- we weren't close anymore. I had figured that after university, I would move out and- and gradually cut off contact, if he didn't get better. But then I would at least have the _option_ to see him again, if I really wanted to."

Ladybug just nodded, holding him tight.

"And I knew he wasn't a good person. But a _supervillain_ \- I've spent so much time fighting him! He was our arch-nemesis. He's endangered _me_ as _myself_ so many times- there have been akumas that were targeting me specifically, and did he even _care?_ " Chat Noir's voice was breaking, and Ladybug hugged him tighter, gently rocking the two of them back and forth. "And my mom- I thought I knew her. I thought she was kind and generous and _caring_ , but she- she used the Miraculous for her own gain, and now she's _gone_ , and he never told me-"

He was sobbing into her shoulder, but he couldn't feel at all embarrassed about it. Ladybug just held him, letting him cry himself out. Eventually his sobs came to an end and he just stood in his partner's arms, trying to get his breathing back to normal as she rubbed his back comfortingly.

"I'm so, so sorry, Chat Noir," Ladybug murmured in his ear. "And I'm here for you, whenever you need me."

He managed a smile for her, pulling back just enough for her to see. "Thank you, my Lady. It- it helped to get that off of my chest, I think. I haven't- I haven't told any of my friends yet. They know that my father died, but not-not the rest. I don't want them to judge me differently right now and if- if they knew- _once_ they know-"

"I don't think that there's any need to tell them if you don't want to," Ladybug said at once, and Chat Noir's eyes snapped to her. "If you're worried about their reactions and you don't want to risk the news getting out, then don't tell them."

"But once we make an announcement, then all of Paris will know," Chat Noir pointed out. His throat felt tight at the thought. He didn't want to tell her Plagg's suggestion right away- he didn't want to influence her, not when the suggestion seemed underhanded- even though he really, _really_ would prefer people never find out about his father.

Ladybug frowned, though it was less at _him_ and more in thought. "But would doing that really accomplish anything? Your father is gone, it wouldn't matter to him anymore. I feel like there would be at least _some_ people in Paris who would judge you because of him, which- well, that really wouldn't be fair to you at all, would it? We wouldn't want _your_ identity getting out, either. You said that the one person who worked with him- Mayura- that she had regretted it for a while?"

Chat Noir nodded, feeling blown away. Even without hearing what Plagg had said, Ladybug's reasoning was absolutely identical. If- if she thought the same, then maybe it would be okay?

"Having to work under Hawkmoth without being fully willing would be a kind of punishment in itself, I think," Ladybug decided. "If we want to revisit that later and have her do- well, _something_ to make up for it without involving the police, we can. But I don't think that it's worth getting _you_ dragged down with the whole mess."

It was official, Chat Noir decided as Ladybug pulled both of them down to sit on the beam and tugged him into her lap so that she could hug him even better. He was so, _so_ in love with this girl.

With her firmly on his side, he had a chance of recovering after all.


	2. Glowing Embers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...posted this chapter on the wrong story the first time around, whoops.

By the time Chat Noir got home- the next morning, after falling asleep in Ladybug's arms on top of the Eiffel Tower and both of them sleeping soundly there for the entire night- several responsibilities had been lifted off of his shoulders.

The Gorilla had stepped in as Adrien's guardian and the runner of the house, as he was both Adrien's bodyguard and (apparently- Adrien hadn't known this before) his mom's cousin. He was going to make all of the arrangements for the burial, and had offered to set up a funeral until Adrien told him that he didn't really want to bother with that.

The Gorilla didn't look as surprised as Adrien had thought, but then again he had seen the relationship between father and son deteriorate through the years. More than anyone in the house, he had cared for Adrien, letting him escape to spend time with his friends as long as Adrien wasn't being chased by mobs of people. And the last several times when there had been interest in Adrien after a commercial aired, the Gorilla had opted to just accompany Adrien wherever he wanted to go around Paris rather than trying to drag him back home.

(Nooroo had also cleared the Gorilla of all guilt the previous day in a rare bit of actual _good_ news- he had never suspected his employer's supervillain activities at all, and he had been an avid supporter of Ladybug and Chat Noir.)

As a bonus, the Gorilla also knew who all of Mr. Agreste's legal people were, and what needed to be done to start transferring bank accounts and deeds and everything. It was just one more big thing that Adrien didn't have to take care of.

In fact, now that Ladybug had told Chat Noir that she could do the announcement to Paris on her own so that he didn't have to be there and struggle to keep a neutral expression in front of the crowds of reporters and that she would bring the two recovered Miraculous to Master Fu, Adrien didn't really have anything left on his list of things that he _had_ to take care of. He just had to sort through his own feelings and try to get back to some sense of normalcy, which...

Well, it was still a lot, but it wasn't an _overwhelming_ lot. And as a bonus, Ladybug had suggested a nightly meet-up so that they could cuddle and he could have a safe place to talk through his feelings and everything that had happened.

(She. Was. _Amazing._ )

"You don't _have_ to do this right away, kid, you know that, right?"

Adrien shook his head as he picked his way through the graveyard, following the instructions that he had found tucked in the last journal. "I want to see Mom's gravestone. I've not gotten any closure with that, and this- even if I never got a funeral for her, this- this is something."

Maybe he was upset with his mom right now, upset that she apparently hadn't been the person that he had thought she was and heartbroken at the lies. But in his memories, she was still a caring mother, not- not the lady that the journals had described, who used the hypnotic powers of the Peacock (powers that Adrien hadn't even been aware _existed_ , even though- well, peacock, hypnotism, that _did_ make sense) to pull more investors onboard with supporting _Gabriel_ and to get influential fashion columnists to write favorably about the company in their columns, advancing the company _far_ faster than it would have gotten on its own otherwise.

It had been supremely selfish and manipulative. Maybe there were no real lingering negativeeffects since _Gabriel_ was a strong company even without the help and all the pushes had done was speed up the rate at which the company joined the topmost fashion brands in Europe- the investors certainly hadn't lost any money, and it was hardly as though the columnists had gotten in trouble for writing about _Gabriel_ \- but that didn't make it _right_.

"Seeing a stone is closure?"

"It's an ending, at least." Adrien checked his copy of the instructions again before taking a turn and heading up another path, pulling his hoodie tighter around himself. "I'll know where she is, which is more than I've been able to say for the past several years."

The plot that Adrien finally arrived at was tucked into the back of the cemetery, far out of the way of prying eyes. It was surrounded by old stones, from people who had long since passed and whose immediate family had probably died long ago, too. That meant that the flowers sitting at the small, relatively plain gravestone stuck out all the more.

Adrien had thought that his father would have gone for something large and gaudy. _Subtle_ had never been his thing- the giant portrait above the stairs, the multiple paintings of his mom, and the statue of Emilie Agreste near their house attested to that, as did the two (two!) lairs of his that Nooroo had told Adrien about- but clearly he hadn't wanted to draw any attention to the grave, not when Emilie Agreste was still officially listed as a missing person.

"He was here recently," Plagg commented, flying over to the flowers. "These are fresh, probably from a couple days ago."

"Yeah." Adrien fingered one of the flowers, inspecting the fairly fresh petals. There were orchids and fern leaves and several other kinds of flowers that he didn't recognize in it, all fresh. It was so fresh that Adrien wouldn't be surprised if his father had put out the bouquet before leaving for the investor's meeting that he had never returned from. "He left the house only every couple days unless he had company stuff that _needed_ him to attend in person, and I bet that this is where he went whenever he left. And this is an obnoxious bouquet- I bet every last one of them were like this."

"The next plot over is empty," Plagg said, flying around. "I bet your father bought both at once. And he intended to be buried in the second one."

Adrien let out a huff, sparing the empty plot a quick glance. "Well, if the Gorilla finds the paperwork for it, fine. That's one less thing to bother with. Otherwise, who cares what his wishes were?"

He didn't stay at his mom's grave for long. There were things he wanted to say, maybe, questions he wanted to ask- why hadn't she just been content with what she had? Why did she have to mess around with magic to get _more?_ Wasn't the money they had and their lifestyle and _him_ enough for her?- but she wasn't there to answer those questions. Not anymore.

Not for a while.

Adrien headed home and, for the first time since his trip to the hospital, responded to Nino's texts himself. Plagg had clearly gone through his phone already so that all of the texts and calls from his friends and classmates were listed as seen and weren't staring Adrien in the face and overwhelming him when he opened his messages. Nino's response was immediate, even though he was meant to be in the middle of class.

"I bet he's had his phone out all day and none of the teachers are going to say anything about it," Plagg told Adrien when he said as much. "I mean, the news broke pretty fast, didn't it? They know what happened."

"Yeah." Adrien didn't know _how_ , exactly- he had _thought_ that it was policy for the family to make a statement when a famous person died, but maybe not. Or maybe it was pretty obvious at the scene that his father wasn't going to make it, or- he didn't know. A buzz from his phone caught Adrien's attention, and he looked down to see another message from Nino. "He wants to know if I'd be interested in having him and Alya and Marinette come over after school, either just to hang out or so I can catch up on school stuff."

Plagg considered him. "Are you ready to see them?"

Adrien didn't even have to think about it. "Honestly? No. Not- not yet. I mean, it would be a distraction, maybe, but- I mean, the teachers have sent me my assignments, I've seen the emails. I can work on that as a distraction on my own."

"Are you worried that they might decide to talk about the superheroes as a distraction and that would be hard?"

Adrien had been about to say no, when he gave it a second thought and- yeah, that was part of it. He needed another day's distance before he could handle that kind of conversation without being worried about giving something away. "Something like that. Alya's going to talk about nothing _but_ Hawkmoth when Ladybug does her announcement, whenever she does it."

Plagg made a face. "You need less obsessed friends."

"It was funny to listen to before I found out about Father." Adrien tucked Plagg into his jacket as he headed for the subway. "And I'm sure it'll be similar in the future, once I have some distance. But I'll be able to handle it tomorrow, I'm sure of it."

* * *

"Dude, we've been so worried!"

Adrien managed a smile as he let Nino and Alya in. Marinette was nowhere in sight, which meant that either she had overslept or she had been roped into either helping at the bakery or doing something else. "Hi, you guys."

"We were really sorry to hear what happened," Alya said more formally as Nino gave Adrien a hug. "It's just so- so unexpected."

"That's one way to put it," Adrien agreed with a tight smile. "Unexpected." He glanced between the two of them as Nino stepped back. "Is- uh, is Marinette coming?"

"She's running late," Alya said at once. "She was practicing some sort of speech in her room when I stopped by to get her and wanted to finish her run-through all the way before coming over."

Nino frowned, glancing over at Alya. "A speech? Is it- is it about what I think it is? Because it's _really_ not the time."

Alya only shrugged, not elaborating at all. Adrien frowned as he glanced between her and Nino, sensing that there was something there that he wasn't being told. "I don't know. I didn't catch any words before she heard me coming and stopped. Maybe it's something for the class president thing. She did say that she was coming, though, and to just start without her."

Adrien couldn't help but slump. He had rather been looking forward to getting a Marinette hug right away. She hugged with her whole body, just like Ladybug did, and it was the _best_.

At least she _was_ coming eventually. He would get his Marinette hug soon enough.

The three of them headed up to Adrien's bedroom. He had been sure to put away everything of his father's in the safe before they came, just in case, and so all that was out was the printed-out assignments that his teachers had sent. Adrien had finished up a lot already on his own- his Literature assignments were easy to bang out, and Philosophy was easy enough considering that he had been sent lecture notes as well. There were a couple other classes that had just had readings to complete and lecture notes to review (Plagg had helped Adrien actually absorb the information by stealing the lecture notes from him and reading them off like a professor so that Adrien didn't just absently skim over all the notes without taking anything in; while Adrien had been more than a little skeptical about the strategy at first, he had to admit that having to actually take his _own_ notes like normal helped.). With the end of the year and exams coming up soon, though, it was still important to be studying _everything_ and making sure that he understood it.

(His father had the worst timing in the world, honestly.)

Marinette arrived twenty minutes later, flushed from running and carrying a bag with both pastries and leftovers from her parents. She immediately wrapped Adrien up in a hug, and he practically melted into the embrace.

(Seriously, she gave _the_ best hugs. Well, with the possible exception of Ladybug.)

"I lost track of time," Marinette told him as they headed back to his room. "I was practicing a thing and I wanted to get it right and memorize it while I was on a roll, and I didn't realize how much time was passing."

"No worries," Adrien said, wrapping his arm around hers. "I'm just glad you could make it. That way I have someone to talk to when Nino and Alya start making eyes at each other."

Or, as it turned out fifteen minutes later, when Nino and Alya got bored of discussing their science unit and brought up the topic of Hawkmoth and the lack of akumatizations lately.

"It's been, what, a week and a half?" Alya said, and it took Adrien a second to figure out what she was talking about. When he did, he stiffened. "I know he's gone for stretches without akumatizing anyone before, but it's always strange- he must be planning something. That's _always_ what he's doing when he goes silent."

Adrien had to think about it, and- actually, Alya was right. Even though his father had only died several days before, he hadn't akumatized anyone for a week before that. He probably hadn't been plotting anything big, though. There had been a bunch of meetings with investors lately, some out of the city, and that meant that his father couldn't slip away. It had been a welcome break in akuma-fighting, and Adrien had taken full advantage of it to study as much as he could before the next wave of akumas inevitably showed up.

Well. Not so _inevitable_ anymore.

"Yeah, I kind of hate it when more than a few days pass by without any akuma," Nino agreed at once, and Adrien tried his best not to listen. He had told Plagg that he would be fine with hearing talk about Hawkmoth, really, but that- that clearly wasn't the case yet. He wondered what it would be like once the news broke that Hawkmoth was dead. _Everyone_ would be talking about it then, and he wouldn't be able to escape. Adrien would skip school to keep away from it, but he couldn't avoid the conversation forever.

"Oh, no kidding. I mean, evil planning aside, there's so much less traffic on the Ladyblog when there aren't any akumas-"

"Adrien, I'm on the same problem that you're on, and I'm stuck. Do you want to work through it together? I thought I might read that section in the book and see if it gives me any ideas."

Adrien startled, glancing over at Marinette. She had moved closer to him when he wasn't paying attention, and now was sitting at his elbow, open science book in front of her. One look at her expression told Adrien that she had caught on that Alya and Nino's discussion was making him uncomfortable (actually, it was making him sick to his stomach- Alya thought not having akuma attacks was _inconvenient_ because they were good for her blog and that- that just didn't sit well with him, not when so much of his life had been interrupted and uprooted thanks to Hawkmoth) and she was trying to distract him. The effort was very much appreciated, especially considering that Nino and Alya clearly weren't going to drop their topic any time soon.

In the end, his friends only stayed for two hours before having to leave. Alya had babysitting duty, apparently, and Nino had promised to help her. Marinette hung back, turning to Adrien once their friends had vanished out the door.

"My parents wanted me to let you know that you're welcome to come stay with us for a bit if you want to get out of this house," Marinette told him. "If it feels too empty or has too many memories, or- whatever, really. We have a guest room that you could use, so you could have your own space."

Adrien blinked, blown away by the offer. It went above and beyond, really. "I- thank you, so much. I'll consider it, I promise, I just- right now-"

"Don't feel like you need to make any sort of decision right away," Marinette said at once, resting one hand on his arm. "We just want you to know that you have the option there, in case you decide that you want it. And if you ever want company, either to talk to or to just be in the same room so it's not so empty- seriously, just call me or come on over. Our door is open for you."

Adrien could only wrap Marinette up in a grateful hug, at a complete loss for words.

* * *

On Sunday afternoon, Ladybug called a press conference. For the first time ever, she showed up alone at the mayor's podium.

Adrien watched from at home, so thankful that his partner had assured him that she could handle it alone. Even though he was feeling better- even though he was coming to terms with, well, _everything_ \- he didn't trust himself in front of a microphone and dozens of cameras yet.

"She doesn't look nervous at all," Plagg commented as he settled down on the back of Adrien's couch to watch. On screen, Ladybug was clearly exchanging some small talk with the mayor while they waited for all of the reporters to settle. Based on the mayor's usual expression, she hadn't broken the news to him yet, either. "I bet she is, though, and she's just gotten good at hiding it."

"She's gotten really good at public speaking," Adrien agreed, leaning forward as Ladybug turned her attention back to the podium, smoothing out a piece of paper there as though they were about to start. He caught sight of the mayor trying to glance over her shoulder to see what the conference was about, but it was obvious that Ladybug's hands were covering the paper enough that he couldn't make things out. "I can just barely hear another reporter talking near Madam Chamack. It sounds like they're thinking that something happened to me."

Plagg yawned widely. "Yeah, it's one of those gossip reporters, and they think that you died and that's why Ladybug is there alone."

"If I had, Ladybug would have picked out a new partner before making any announcements. They probably would have been out for a fight first, too. No point in exposing weaknesses like that." On screen, things settled down. "Oh, it's starting."

"Thank you for coming today," Ladybug started confidently, straightening and glancing around the audience. "I know that this is last minute, but Chat Noir and I have some news that we wanted to share with you. He's not able to make it today because he had a civilian obligation that he couldn't get out of, but he didn't want it to delay our announcement." Ladybug paused to take a breath, and then she looked out at the audience, chin high and confident. "Because Hawkmoth is gone. Paris is safe."

The room _exploded_. Ladybug waited patiently for the fuss to die down, her expression giving nothing away even as reporters shouted questions in her direction. Her quirked brow told them that they had to wait for their questions, though, and they settled quickly enough.

"There was no final battle, as I'm sure you noticed," Ladybug continued once the room had quieted to her liking, her voice even and calm. "Hawkmoth died suddenly of reasons unrelated to his misuse of the Butterfly Miraculous, and his remaining family found the Miraculous among his possessions following his death. They brought the Miraculous to Chat Noir and I so that we would know and could return the Miraculous to their proper spot. We talked to both them and Hawkmoth's former kwami and there are no other willing accomplices still alive."

Adrien made a small face at that. It wasn't _strictly_ true, even ignoring Nathalie's only somewhat less-than-entirely-willing involvement. He had found a note in one of his father's journals that Lila Rossi had willingly worked with him or at least had had some sort of informal _agreement_ with Hawkmoth about causing more akumas and becoming one on a regular basis, but Lila had been exposed as a liar and had left the country in disgrace with her mom over a year ago. Dragging her back into things- at least _publically_ , neither he nor Ladybug had ruled out reaching out to her mom and administering punishment that way- would just complicate the whole situation.

Plagg cackled. "Oh, Ladybug is slick. She's not mentioning the Peacock at all, or giving away that there was more than one Miraculous recovered. She could be a politician like that, not _lying_ exactly but not reminding the public about Mayura."

"It'll help that the Peacock hasn't come into play recently," Adrien said absently, watching as Ladybug made a few more quick remarks to assure the public that they had investigated properly. "She hadn't come out for more than a month when we fought the last akuma. And like Alya said, even _that_ was a week and a half ago. More, now."

"I thank Hawkmoth's family for their bravery in coming forward to us with the Miraculous," Ladybug continued onscreen, her voice rising just a hair to be heard over the grumble that was starting to fill the room. "And we send them our best wishes that they can heal from the death and the discovery."

"But _who_ was Hawkmoth?" one reporter yelled out at once. "You haven't told us yet!"

Ladybug's expression was flat as she answered, leaning a little closer to the microphone so she would be picked up. "That is staying confidential information. He is gone, and-"

"The public has a right to know!"

"Yeah, and the police should interrogate the family!"

"He is _gone_ , and releasing his name would only punish his family," Ladybug repeated, her voice louder. "And they are _innocent_ , Chat Noir and I already investigated _._ They knew nothing about his supervillain activities."

Madam Chamack scoffed, her voice coming across loud and clear. "And we're supposed to believe that Hawkmoth's family didn't suspect _anything?_ That's ridiculous. They _lived_ with him, they must have-"

Ladybug's stare- a stare almost bordering on a _glare_ \- was piercing. "I've been a superhero for _years_ and so has Chat Noir. Our friends and family have suspected nothing. If people aren't expecting it, it's easy enough to hide."

"Paris deserves to know who tormented her for _years-_ "

"Paris _does_ know: it was Hawkmoth."

"But-"

Ladybug was doing a good job of hiding the irritation on her face. Adrien suspected that she knew that this was coming. "You all want to know who Hawkmoth was out of curiosity. That's understandable. But you would get a name, a face behind the mask, and then you wouldn't care anymore. In a week or a month, you would move on and having the name out there wouldn't matter to you. But if Hawkmoth's name got out, I have no doubt that his family would face all sorts of backlash and be targeted by no fault of their own, and I _refuse_ to have innocent civilians targeted just because people were curious. End. Of. Discussion."

There was a discontented murmur at that, one that made Adrien frown in concern. Ladybug might be Paris' darling, but public opinion could change _really_ fast.

"Plagg, are you charged up?" Adrien asked, leaning forward to keep a close eye on the screen. "If people get any more riled up, I might move over to the City Hall area so that Ladybug has backup nearby."

Plagg swallowed half of a wedge of Camembert in one bite. "On it, kid."

"Will you be doing an identity reveal now that the danger is gone?" another reporter called out as Adrien transformed, apparently having sensed that Ladybug wasn't going to budge on her position. "We would love to know who's been protecting us all of these years!"

This time, Ladybug actually _did_ frown. "A identity reveal to each other, perhaps. To Paris? No. There will _always_ be people out there in search of power, and there's no point in making it easy for them to find it."

"Can you comment on your relationship with Chat Noir? You both have been seen out and about lately looking _very_ close-"

Chat Noir headed out the window (carefully, of course), jumping over several rooftops before he had the time to pull out his earpiece and tune it in to the news so that he could follow along. Ladybug was dismissing more claims of the two of them being in a relationship, pointing out that they had been friends and partners for years and of course they were close. The _real_ reason that they had been so cuddly over the past couple days was, of course, because she had been comforting him and her hugs were amazing, but they couldn't say that unless they wanted to give away the fact that Hawkmoth had been Chat Noir's father.

And just in case it ever came out that Hawkmoth had been Mr. Agreste, if anyone ever managed to work that out on their own or even suspect it- _yeah_ , they didn't want to give his identity away.

The press conference ended without any incident just as Chat Noir reached City Hall. He landed on a rooftop nearby, out of sight as reporters started to file out. There was no sign of Ladybug yet- no doubt she was taking a back exit and then heading to the rooftops so that no one could bother her- so he settled in to wait for her, thinking about the news conference.

Ladybug had done really, _really_ well. She hadn't flinched at the barrage of questions at all and hadn't even looked down at what _had_ to be her prepared sheet of remarks. Clearly she had memorized the entire thing. While she had said that Hawkmoth had died suddenly, she hadn't specified that it was in a car accident, and her wording hadn't given away that there was just one family member left, even though Chat Noir _knew_ that he had mentioned that it was just him and his father at some point. She was making it as hard as possible for people to figure out who Hawkmoth had been, while giving out just enough information to make it seem like she wasn't hiding more than necessary.

Of course, _she_ didn't know who Hawkmoth was, either. Chat Noir had offered to tell her, since she was his partner and deserved to know more than anyone else, but she had told him not to feel obligated to reveal himself if he wasn't entirely ready yet. Since there weren't going to be any more threats from Hawkmoth, it wasn't _necessary_ for her to know.

He was thankful for that, actually. After his secret identity had been _secret_ for so long, just up and sharing it all of a sudden would have been a shock. He needed _some_ things to stay the same.

"Chat Noir! I wasn't expecting to see you out and about right now!"

Chat Noir grinned as Ladybug dropped down next to him. "Oh, you know me. I just can't stay away. And I was worried," he added when she rolled her eyes at him in fond exasperation. "The reporters seemed to be really upset about you not telling them anything, and I wanted to be close by in case anyone tried anything. I was listening in," he added, tapping at his earpiece and turning it down at the same time. Madam Chamack was saying something about the press conference, but he didn't bother to listen too closely. He could look it up later and see what Paris' attitude was towards the news. "And if anything happened..."

"My protective bodyguard," Ladybug said fondly, giving him a warm hug. "I was ready to bolt out of there at a moment's notice. Before the conference even started, I mapped out all of the things in the room that I could latch my yo-yo to in case I had to get off of the ground."

"You're always so prepared." Chat Noir let himself lean into her side. "And I know that you can defend yourself, but I just- part of me still felt like I should have been there."

"Mm-hmm." Ladybug rested her head against his shoulder. "That's not the last that we'll hear of it, I'm sure. There were _not_ a lot of happy faces in that room when I left. I'd say that we'll probably have reporters harassing us about Hawkmoth's identity for a while."

She sounded tired. Chat Noir felt bad for her. Ladybug was no doubt planning on shielding him from the worst of the inquiries, which wasn't fair on her. She was studying for her final exams, just like him, and she no doubt had other things going on in her civilian life that needed her time and energy.

"But if we stay on the rooftops and only tell them that we've already said all that we're going to at today's press conference, they should give up eventually," Ladybug continued. "It's just curiosity. They'll find something else to take up their attention."

"I hope so, Bug," Chat Noir said, peering over the side of the rooftop just enough to see the hordes of reporters still down below, each talking eagerly to a camera. "I really, _really_ hope so."

* * *

The talk of the school was Hawkmoth's death and Ladybug's refusal to tell Paris who he was. Oddly enough, Chat Noir's absence at the press conference and what it might mean was also a popular subject.

No one had guessed the truth. Instead, they thought that Chat Noir had disagreed with Ladybug about releasing Hawkmoth's name and that they had fallen out, maybe, and Ladybug had decided to do the conference by herself so that Chat Noir wouldn't act out behind her.

That- that was _worse_ than the truth, actually. Ladybug had just been helping him by doing the conference by herself, and _this_ was her reward.

Alya was talking about the conference when Adrien entered homeroom, her voice animated as she held most of the class's interest. She was firmly on the side of revealing Hawkmoth's identity, which Adrien had known before he even came in. The Ladyblog had had a _very_ upset article about Ladybug's refusal to tell the public, one that he had just skimmed before exiting the page.

"Maybe the superheroes aren't going to say anything, but his identity can't stay secret forever," Alya was saying as Adrien slipped past her to sit next to Marinette instead of in his normal seat in the front row, which Alya had taken. "I've been trying to figure out who it might be, looking through obituaries for people who 'died unexpectedly', but there are a lot of people in Paris and a lot of deaths and the obits don't always specify in Paris versus out of Paris, and it's been almost two weeks since the last akuma attack. There's no way to tell when during that he died. And he might have died _during_ that akuma battle, too, from a heart attack or something. It was impossible to tell what was going on on his end of things unless he actually came out."

"And Hawkmoth's family might have not given the superheroes the full story," Nino chimed in. "He might had been ill and that's why he wanted to use the Miraculous to- to cure it somehow. Like, it could have been _anyone_."

Alya groaned. "Oh, that would be the worst! How am I supposed to figure out who Hawkmoth was if they've given us misleading information? That's not fair!"

Adrien's eyes flashed to Alya. Once again, all she cared about was the _scoop,_ and it made him a little ill. She was one of his _friends_. If she actually managed to figure out who Hawkmoth had been, would she care that she knew him and keep it secret for his sake? Or would she post it anyway?

"There's a petition about that, actually- I just saw it this morning and linked it to the Ladyblog, and it's gotten _so_ many signatures already!" Alya was grinning again. "It's to make Ladybug and Chat Noir release the information about who Hawkmoth was. They're so close to hitting their target goal, too!"

Adrien's stomach dropped.

"Oh, that's great!"

"Cool!"

"Lemme find the link, I want to sign it now-"

"No _petition_ is going to be able to make Ladybug and Chat Noir release anything."

The chatter around Alya stopped immediately and everyone turned to look at Marinette, who looked less than happy with them. Her arms were crossed across her chest and she was glaring. "Petitions are a show of support for a cause, not something legally binding. And even if the mayor tried something- the Miraculous are Ladybug and Chat Noir's jurisdiction, not the police's or anybody else's. _No one_ can make them release any information, nor should they. If Ladybug said not to worry about who Hawkmoth was and to leave it alone, then you should _leave it alone_."

Several people exchanged uncertain looks, taking a step back away from Alya.

Alya crossed her arms right back. "Uh-huh, and what about the right of the people to know? Hawkmoth possessed a _ton_ of people across the city."

"He's _dead_. It's not like it's going to make any difference to him. It's not like he's escaping a punishment or anything."

" _I_ think there's something fishy there," Alya countered at once. "I bet the family knew about Hawkmoth, but they decided to hand over the Miraculous in return for anonymity and getting away scot-free."

"That's _ridiculous_."

"Why else would Ladybug and Chat Noir keep their secret, hmm?" Alya challenged. "If Hawkmoth's family isn't guilty- if they _honestly_ didn't know- then the police can decide that and let the public know."

Marinette's scowl was fierce, and Adrien was very, _very_ glad that he wasn't on the receiving end of it. " _I_ think that this whole push for the reveal is just trashy tabloid interest. Look at you- you're ignoring _real-world_ _consequences_ in your search for a scoop! How would it be worth destroying a family's _life_ over a scoop for something that someone _dead_ did?"

Adrien blinked, somewhat taken aback by Marinette's tone. The whole fight had escalated really quickly, especially considering that Alya and Marinette were _friends_.

"They got into a big fight about this last night," Nino whispered in Adrien's ear, making him startle. "After Alya posted about the press conference on the Ladyblog. Marinette is firmly on Ladybug's side. Alya... is not."

"Trashy? You're calling the Ladyblog _trashy?_ "

"If you've decided that a scoop for it is more important than _actual human beings_ , then yeah!"

" _Actual human beings_ who got akumatized want answers and they deserve them!"

Marinette rolled her eyes at that. "Uh-huh. Just this weekend, you were complaining because there hadn't been any akuma attacks lately and that meant that traffic on the Ladyblog was slower than usual. Where was the concern for the akuma victims then, huh?"

Alya spluttered, going red. "I- no, that was just a general observation-"

"And in the Ladyblog's first year, you wanted to expose Ladybug and Chat Noir's identities, never mind the consequences _that_ would have!" Marinette countered. "You're just _all_ about the scoop, forget the consequences to other people as long as you get your hits!"

"The public has a right-"

"And I think that _that_ is just a weak excuse for you to hide behind instead of admitting that this whole search for Hawkmoth's identity is selfish!"

"Okay, class, to your seats!" their teacher called before Alya could respond. "Class is starting now, settle down!"

Much to Adrien's relief, that was the end of the fight, at least for the time being. Alya kept her back to Marinette, who looked like she couldn't care less. Neither of them spoke to the other for the rest of the day, which meant that Adrien got to be Marinette's seatmate for the entire day.

That was really good, actually. Marinette was a quiet, supportive presence, _there_ without being overwhelmingly smothering or anything. Best of all, she understood the importance of just sitting there in a quiet hug.

"If I ever tell any of my normal friends about Father, it's going to be Marinette that I tell," Adrien told Plagg over lunch. "Not anybody else. Nino is dating Alya and I can't trust that he won't for _sure_ ever not say anything about it, and Alya is an obvious no. Marinette might be best friends with Alya, but she wouldn't say anything, I know it. This isn't the first time that she's had issues with the way Alya was reporting things."

Plagg sniffed. "As is only right. Reporter girl's not got a firm handle on reporting ethics yet, or the ability to take a step back and see beyond the immediate effects of certain information going public."

Adrien nodded. He had hoped that the journalism camp that Alya had gone to the previous summer would have helped curb that particular tendency of hers, but apparently there was no such luck. Or maybe this was just too big of a potential scoop for her to really think ahead that far.

That afternoon came with a request from the police department that the superheroes tell them who Hawkmoth had been, so that they could interview the people close to him themselves to check for any potential collaborators. This time, Chat Noir accompanied Ladybug as she headed over to police headquarters to-

Well, to tell them to shove off, essentially. After all, she had already said that she and Chat Noir had looked for collaborators and come up with no one who had been a fully willing helper. The Miraculous were _their_ jurisdiction, and they took care of the investigation. End of story.

None of the police officers looked very happy when they left. And none of the reporters who had crowded in around the station looked particularly thrilled with the brisk brush-off that the superheroes gave them when they shouted questions about Hawkmoth's identity and how all of Paris wanted to know and how there were _petitions_ , so obviously they should be sharing-

Ladybug looked like she was considering throttling someone as they shot away from the knot of microphones and cameras.

"How are you holding up, kitty?" she asked as the two of them headed across the city, faster than cars could chase them. "I'm sure it's not easy, since Hawkmoth has kind of been _the_ topic of the day. It's practically all I heard about all day, it seemed."

"It's hard," Chat Noir admitted. "Especially because everyone is making such a big deal about not knowing his identity. I'm lucky that I have a friend who understand the _why_ and she called out people who were making a big stink about it. So then people were kind of avoiding us with that conversation, which helped."

Ladybug looked pleased. "I like your friend already."

Chat Noir couldn't hide his grin. He _definitely_ wanted to introduce Ladybug and Marinette sometime. He was sure that they would get along well. "She's very likeable. Also scary when she wants to be. I couldn't believe it when people kept arguing with her. I mean, she's kinda the same size you are, but I wouldn't want to cross _her,_ either."

The smug look on Ladybug's face made him laugh.

The two of them tried to curl up on a secluded rooftop together to hang out (and maybe get some homework done- after spending two days not being remotely productive, he _needed_ to get back on top of things), but no matter where they went, people spotted them and started shouting questions at them. Soon enough, they spotted a news helicopter lifting off across the city and decided to each head their separate ways for the time being before the helicopter started trying to follow them home.

It was frustrating, Chat Noir reflected as he dropped back down into his room and detransformed. He _needed_ his Ladybug time right now, because aside from Plagg, she was the _only_ person who knew all that he was going through. Maybe they didn't just talk about his feelings- because that wasn't going to help, just lingering over what was making him feel bad- but she _understood_ if he suddenly went quiet when they were chatting about something, or if he cuddled up to her side in search of a wordless hug. If the public and the press didn't let up soon, it could become _dangerous_ for the two of them to transform and meet up. If people tried to track their trips home...

They would figure him out in a heartbeat, and it wouldn't be long before someone pieced together that Hawkmoth was his father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> re: the speech: yep, it was Ladybug's announcement to Paris that Marinette was practicing, and yes, Nino and Alya assumed that it was some sort of love confession. Of course.
> 
> I was a little torn on making Alya's position on Hawkmoth's identity the (from Adrien's POV) unpopular one, but since she doesn't have all of the information (aka who Hawkmoth was) and has been shown to be SUPER focused on the scoop (ie the identities thing, throwing a zillion non-essential questions at Ladybug when she was given her Miraculous, not checking out Lila's lies in favor of the sparky scoop), I figured that she would be super-disappointed about not getting THAT scoop at the very least and that would cloud her judgement. She'd come around eventually.
> 
> Also Marinette/LB is hellla protective of her partner, pass it on.


	3. From the Ashes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Marinette Protects Her Kitty, Darn It.
> 
> Sorry about the delay in posting! We had some long workdays and then my computer ended up in the shop for a couple days to see if I could prolong its inevitable decline towards total failure (aka the graphics card is going out) and that ended up taking longer than anticipated (but the computer is still dying).
> 
> So, without further ado, the last chapter!

Adrien's day started with a media fuss about the fact that Gabriel Agreste wasn't getting a funeral, just a private burial. Adrien _would_ have ignored it- after all, he had other things to deal with- but one article was suggesting that perhaps Gabriel Agreste had been Hawkmoth and that was why there was no funeral.

Groaning, Adrien rolled his way out of bed and headed downstairs to prepare a media statement saying that the reasoning behind having no funeral was because his father hadn't been a good parent in years, if ever, always putting work before family; that Adrien had been planning on cutting off contact with his father anyway once he was through university and on his own because he didn't need a toxic presence like that in his life; and that despite what the press wanted to believe, the decision to not hold a funeral for his father was entirely based on that. There was no point in him dedicating the time and effort to put together a funeral to celebrate the life of his father when his father had never spared any time for _him_ , and besides, Adrien had exams and the rest of his life to think about.

Either he would come off heartless and cold to the media, or he would make a good chip in his father's reputation. Considering that a number of people already had an inkling about what his father was like- there had been articles commenting about the lack of Gabriel Agreste at Adrien's assorted sporting events before and more than a few reports about how he blew people off and regularly insulted his designers- the claim that father and son hadn't been at all close was hardly coming out of nowhere.

By the time lunch rolled around, new articles had been posted with Adrien's official statement. They all seemed to take the statement at face value, thankfully, and it was a _much_ more relaxed Adrien who slouched down in front of his TV after he finished his lunch. That was one crisis averted, at least for now.

And then Nadia Chamack popped up on the TV screen, announcing that she was going to be interviewing people around the Louvre about their responses to Ladybug and Chat Noir's unwillingness to release Hawkmoth's identity to the police and to the public.

"Oh, not _this_ again," Adrien groaned, muting the TV before pressing his hands to his face. Ladybug had said that it would probably take a bit for the interest to die down, but couldn't they give it a break for even a _little_ while? "I don't really want to listen to a bunch of people talk about how apparently they have the right to screw up my life even more-"

"Kid." Plagg's voice cut Adrien off mid-complaint. When he looked up, his kwami was staring at the TV. "Look."

Adrien looked. Onscreen, Rose and Juleka were talking to Madam Chamack. On a small banner across the bottom of the screen, text read _In Favor of Ladybug Keeping Hawkmoth's Secret_.

Adrien managed a smile at that. At least there would be a couple people in Madam Chamack's piece that weren't clamoring for the release of Hawkmoth's name. They would be in the minority, surely, but at least they were _there_. People would have to admit that not _everyone_ in Paris shared the same point of view. It wasn't much, but it was _something_.

And then the familiar faces kept coming.

Mylène and Ivan made an appearance, apparently out and about in the area for a picnic. Adrien turned the sound on long enough to catch Mylène decrying both the pressure on Ladybug and Chat Noir to change their mind and reporters' attempts to figure it out independently, pointing out that the search would involve harassing people who just suffered a loss in their family no matter _how_ the reporters did it and that was just plain _cruel_. One dissenter followed them, but they sounded less than certain about their opinion after hearing Mylène's words.

Madam Chamack approached a group of roller skaters next, and Adrien spotted Alix's distinctive spiky pink hair among the skaters as they told the camera that they supported Ladybug and Chat Noir's decision, too. A group of university students told her the same thing, chattering with each other how having the information out could impact the remainder of Hawkmoth's family even though they had been declared innocent, and a flash of familiar teal hair in the back of the group made Adrien do a double-take.

That was _Luka_ among the group. Adrien had thought that his university was on the far side of the city.

The next two passer-byes were strangers, who admitted that they were curious but that they could see everyone else's points about why making Hawkmoth's identity public would be a bad idea. They were followed by Aurore and Mireille- seriously, how were all of these people that Adrien knew _just happening_ to be passing by?- then another dissenting stranger before Jagged Stone, Fang, and Penny all showed up to tell Madam Chamack that they stood by the superheroes' stance, too.

"What on _earth_ ," Adrien said, leaning forward with a bit of a smile teasing the corners of his mouth. "Where did Jagged Stone come from? How did he just _happen_ to show up when Madam Chamack was interviewing people? That's so- _oh_. Of _course._ Of course she would."

The answer to his question had just appeared on the screen. Madam Chamack had approached Marinette as she headed across the square to join Rose and Juleka in their impromptu picnic, and everything fell into place at once.

Marinette had been talking to a lot of people over the course of the morning and also spending a lot of time tapping at her phone. Adrien had thought at the time that it was a _little_ strange- normally Marinette didn't spend _that_ much time talking to people and she _definitely_ didn't spend that much time on her phone- but he had written it off. As class representative, Marinette was in charge of the end-of-year picnic and could have easily been collecting suggestions for what people wanted to do before exams were on top of them. It was obvious now that that wasn't the case at all. She must have been recruiting people to show up at the Louvre.

As for how Marinette knew about the live interviews in the first place, well- her mom knew Madam Chamack, so Marinette could have overheard when and where they would be taking place. And considering how irritated she had been with Alya earlier with the 'Hawkmoth identity debate', it was _just_ like Marinette to organize as many people as she could to be in the area so that she could control the narrative being presented.

He was being protected by two _incredible_ girls, it seemed. Ladybug stood between Chat Noir and reporters, and Marinette was providing a civilian intervention.

"I like her," Plagg said approvingly, watching as Marinette launched into an impassioned explanation of why she supported Ladybug and Chat Noir's decision, pointing out that Hawkmoth's family _had_ been very brave in going to the superheroes when they _could_ have just hidden the Miraculous and let the akuma attacks come to an unexplained end. "Very clever. Underhanded, maybe, and manipulative, but used for all the right reasons."

On screen, Madam Chamack was looking as though this _interview_ thing wasn't quite going the way that she had planned. She had clearly tried asking Marinette a few follow-up questions and gotten _completely_ flattened by Marinette's thought-out answers, and now she wasn't _quite_ sure what to do.

"So that's the, uh, lycée and university population pretty well covered," Madam Chamack told the camera. "And, uh, a couple adults shared their views as well. Let's approach some of our more seasoned Paris residents! Sir, do you have a moment?"

The camera panned out to show an elderly man lugging a bag of flour across the plaza. He looked irritated at the sight of the camera, muttering something under his breath, but he came over to join Madam Chamack anyway. He seemed oddly familiar, too, and Adrien furrowed his brow, trying to place him. Was he a former akuma, maybe? Perhaps a recent one? For some reason, that didn't seem quite right.

Plagg cackled. "Oh, this one should be _good_."

"Today's hot news is that Ladybug and Chat Noir refuse to release Hawkmoth's identity to the public now that he has died," Madam Chamack told the man. "The police and the public want to know who Hawkmoth was. What are your thoughts?"

"In my day, people respected the opinion of the experts!" the man said in a half-bellow _straight_ into the microphone that had Adrien scrambling for the remote to turn the volume down. "And Ladybug and Chat Noir are the experts here, because they're the one who know how the Miraculous work and have been the ones fighting all of the akumas." He scowled at the cameras. "All of these _petitions_ and ignoring experts' opinions and acting as though the public's opinion should be the final judgment- that's _not_ how you're supposed to do it!"

The familiar line had Adrien practically choking on his laughter as he finally placed the face with a memory. "Marinette's grandpa! No wonder I remember him! He's a character, that's for sure."

"All this push for _scoops_ and _hits_ and _views_ \- that's not how you're supposed to do it!" Roland Dupain continued, slinging his bag of flour over his shoulder so that he could punch his fist into the palm of his opposite hand. Madam Chamack was starting to look like she rather wanted to sink into the pavement. "In _my_ day, we had responsible reporting! News reporters considered the consequences of information going public before smearing it across the headlines! We called this kind of shameless digging and pushing no-good, trashy tabloid reporting!"

Plagg was howling with laughter. "Oh, I love him, too!"

"Ah, thank you," Madam Chamack managed, and Roland Dupain nodded shortly before stomping off back across the plaza. "I think that's all we have time for right now. Uh, there were a lot of _interesting_ and at times unexpected opinions and a lot for Paris to consider. Back to you, Alec!"

Adrien grinned as he shut the TV off, catching sight of a baffled Alec before the screen went dark. "Oh, Marinette is my favorite. I do worry a little bit, though- most of Paris won't notice the theme there, but _Alya_ will, if she watches it. And she might call out the planting people on the scene on the Ladyblog."

Plagg made a face. "That's true, but all it would take is people saying that they _were_ there together for some completely normal reason- like, all of your classmates except skater girl had picnic stuff with them- and Madam Chamack just _happened_ to pick them all to interview because they were easy to approach or something. It's not like they were approaching the reporter lady, she was approaching _them._ And _does_ Alya know Marinette's grandpa? You only know of him because of when he got akumatized."

"I'll have to ask Marinette." Adrien pushed himself up off of the couch. "But right now, I have homework to do. And I'll get you more cheese."

Plagg cheered, following Adrien at once.

* * *

Marinette looked rather like the cat that got the cream when Adrien entered the classroom. Alya wasn't there yet, so Adrien sat himself down next to Marinette and grinned at her when she looked up. "Someone had a busy lunch hour."

" _Shhh_. Don't let anyone hear." Marinette leaned closer to him, though, clearly not at all upset. A small smile was playing at the corners of her lips. "So you saw the interviews?"

"And all of the people you planted? Sneaky, sneaky." Adrien snorted at Marinette's preening grin. "But what if Madam Chamack does more interviews or Alya picks up on the fact that most of those people know you?"

Marinette snorted. "What do you take me for, an amateur? I have backup plants, those weren't all of them. I'm actually surprised that as many of them were picked as there were this time around. And I have an ear in the Kidz Plus studio who can give me a heads-up about what's going on there. If they do another round of interviews, I have the plants that weren't interviewed this time ready for the next round. And there are a lot of them who Alya won't recognize- friends of friends and coworkers of people I know and friends of my parents' and their bakery staff. And Alya doesn't know my grandpa. He was the last person that Madam Chamack interviewed, by the way. I don't know think you've met him, either."

Adrien grinned at the memory. "How did you persuade him to come out and do that, by the way? Wasn't he that old-timey akuma that didn't like new stuff?"

The giggle that Marinette let out was absolutely _adorable._ It was also a little devious. Actually, scratch that, a _lot_ bit devious. "Oh, it wasn't hard. I just had to agree to go bake with him this summer and learn how to make some of our bakery's items the old-fashioned way. He's been dying to get the chance to teach me. It's not that I didn't want to before, but I just haven't had the time during the school year."

Adrien could relate to that. Still, he couldn't resist the urge to tease Marinette, just a little bit. "Should I be concerned about how good you are at this whole deception thing?"

"I only use my powers for good, I promise!" Marinette grinned at him. "Would you like to join me for the baking lessons? I know you've enjoyed watching my dad make stuff."

Adrien perked up immediately. Learning how to do Dupain-Cheng- or, he supposed, just _Dupain_ \- baking? Yes, please! "Ooh, yeah, I'd love to!"

Even though most of the interviewees had been planted, it seemed like the general attitude at school was more split now than it had been before. People had heard normal civilians like themselves admitting that their curiosity about Hawkmoth's identity wasn't worth destroying Hawkmoth's family's relationships and job prospects by creating a bias about them, and they were actually starting to listen.

There were still dissenters, though. And it didn't help that the Ladyblog was one of them. Alya had moved on to claiming censorship, which was actually ridiculous and was very much not likely to help her secure a reporter job in the future.

(Adrien had to wonder how many articles on the Ladyblog were going to end up getting edited or deleted entirely as Alya went through her journalism program in university and she realized that they were in bad taste or weren't good examples of reporting. He had noticed that Lila's video and the subsequent article follow-ups had quietly vanished as soon as Lila's lies came to light, and there were a couple earlier articles that had been edited to sound a little more professional and not so _fangirl-y_. Some of her earlier mistakes could be written off as inexperience and excitement, but the later ones?

Alya should have known better by now.)

It didn't escape Adrien's notice that Marinette was talking about literally anything other than Hawkmoth as they went through their afternoon classes. She told him about her parents' plans for trying to make some new treats for the summer, and about some of the designs that she was working on, and mentioned some of her own plans for summer break. It was surprisingly normal conversation, especially considering that Adrien had kind of expected that she would be fired up from her success with the interviews and eager to talk about the planning that had gone into them, and he had to wonder _why_.

Was it because Hawkmoth's death was sudden and recent and Mr. Agreste's death had been the same, so she didn't want to inadvertently poke at any sore spots? Did she suspect who Hawkmoth had been? Maybe it was just because she picked up on the fact that he needed something _normal_ right now.

Or maybe it was because of the fight that Marinette had gotten with Alya over Hawkmoth's identity and she was sick of the topic. According to Nino, the two girls still weren't on speaking terms by the end of the school day.

"Alya's actually even more ticked off now, because she thinks that Marinette set up a bunch of those interviews near the Louvre," Nino told him after school, once both Marinette and Alya had gone their separate ways. "And she confronted Mylène and Rose about it, but they said that they just happened to be in the area with their picnic and Marinette got invited last-minute, which is why Alya hadn't been told. Which is _still_ kinda strange- like, how likely is it that they would go to the _Louvre_ for a picnic? And Alix was there, too- but I guess it's possible?"

Adrien tried not to laugh. Marinette's team clearly had their excuses lined up. "I guess. And it's not like it's a bad location."

Nino made a face. "It's crazy busy there, though. I'd much rather just go to a park. And it's also weird- like, I know that Alix was super-curious about Hawkmoth's identity before, and the rest of them were, too. I mean, they weren't so intense about it that they would join the people following Ladybug and Chat Noir around to yell at them about it or anything, but they weren't exactly supporters of Ladybug and Chat Noir _not_ telling Paris until Marinette got to them."

Adrien could only shrug. "Well, Marinette made good points. She's persuasive."

"Oh, not you, too!" Nino exclaimed. "I think that people are exaggerating the potential effects on Hawkmoth's family, _if_ they actually didn't know about him before. It couldn't possibly be that bad."

"See, _that_ right there is why it would be bad," Adrien shot back, pointing at Nino. "People assuming that his family actually _did_ know. Ladybug and Chat Noir said that they didn't, so why don't people trust that?"

"Uh, maybe because Ladybug and Chat Noir are two teenagers, not trained professionals, and people lie?" Nino suggested. "And the police are trained to pick up on lies, so they should be the ones doing the interviewing. Not Ladybug and Chat Noir, who are just trained to fight akumas."

 _Oh, for_... "Didn't Chloe once say something about a little creature giving her her powers as Queen Bee?" Adrien pointed out, remembering one of Chloe's superhero vlogs. It had been _super_ annoying at the time to have her sharing Miraculous secrets with the world, but now? It was positively useful. "Isn't it likely that Ladybug and Chat Noir interviewed Hawkmoth's little creature? Like, if I were in their shoes, that would be the first thing that I would do."

Nino paused, mouth half-open as he struggled to find an argument. After several seconds, he frowned, his mouth closing fully. "...huh. I guess, yeah." He groaned. "There goes the last of Alya's decent justifications for them _needing_ to share Hawkmoth's identity."

Adrien didn't say anything to that. It sounded like Nino was still on Alya's side, even though he didn't have a good reason, and that was _frustrating_.

"Dunno if I'm going to say that, though," Nino added, running one hand over his hair. "She's already not super-happy about so many of our classmates changing their minds, and I'd like to actually finish the year _with_ a girlfriend, thanks. And I can't deny that I'd really like to know, too."

"Right," Adrien managed, feeling more disappointed than he was willing to let on. He had been hoping that his friends _wouldn't_ be in a fight right now because the timing was obviously less than ideal, but clearly no one was going to budge on their position. Not that he wanted _Marinette_ to budge, because obviously she was right, but Nino and Alya? Couldn't _they_ see that they were wrong?

He didn't know who he was kidding. Alya could be stubborn as a mule. She wasn't going to change her mind.

At least he had Marinette, Adrien thought as Nino bid him good-bye and headed off. Even if Alya got angry at him about the Hawkmoth thing, he wouldn't be the odd one out in the classroom.

* * *

He got a message from Ladybug after school on Friday that she wanted to meet up at midnight. Adrien groaned- that was _late_ \- but he couldn't deny that the late time made sense. Despite the fact that Marinette's interview plants were helping change some people's opinions about finding out Hawkmoth's identity- clearly she had ears in more than just the Kids Plus studio, because _several_ of the main TV stations had done the interviews and come up with similar results- he and Ladybug still hadn't been able to go out and about without people bugging them, yelling after them as they ran across the rooftops. The portion of the population that still wasn't agreeing with their decision was _very_ vocal about it. The only way that they _could_ was by going out so late that people wouldn't be able to see them. Still- _midnight?_

Even though it was nearly summer and days were longer than ever, that seemed late. Maybe she was just being extra-careful because of recent events.

Chat Noir didn't know what to expect when he met up with Ladybug on top of an abandoned warehouse, one that was large enough that no one would be able to see them from the street. Maybe she just wanted to check in on him, but they couldn't exactly spend a lot of time hanging out with it so late. Even though it was the weekend, he couldn't just screw up his sleeping schedule by staying up long past his usual bedtime. He had studying to take into account, and he had his normal activities still to consider.

His stomach dropped when he spotted the nervous look on Ladybug's face as he approached her. In a flash, he started thinking of what that might mean. Had the police or the mayor made some sort of order that they _had_ to comply with? Had Master Fu told her that they had to share Hawkmoth's identity with Paris? Was there something wrong with the Miraculous? Had Nooroo revealed that another household member had been working with Hawkmoth, or maybe he had reconsidered Nathalie's culpability?

"You look like you're about to panic," Ladybug commented, nerves vanishing into a frown as he joined her. "Did something happen?"

Just like that, the rising terror vanished. "I- no? It just- it looked like you had bad news to share, maybe, and I just- I was trying to think of what it might be, and-"

"Oh! Oh, no, nothing bad," Ladybug assured him hastily, reaching out to take his hands. "Just- something I was nervous about. I was talking to Master Fu today, and he suggested that we be less visible for a bit, because we keep getting harassed whenever we go out and people aren't going to forget about Hawkmoth and move on if they're seeing us every day."

Chat Noir's stomach dropped. Out of all of the possibilities that he had thought up, the possibility of losing Ladybug as his support system hadn't been one of them. Of course, they could still transform and talk via their communicators, or meet up late at night so that no one would see them- it would be summer soon, he _could_ stay up then- but it wouldn't be the _same_. He- he _needed_ Ladybug. She knew everything that he was going through, and could help him more than anyone else could, and, and-

"And I didn't want to have to stop seeing you," Ladybug continued, and suddenly he could breathe again. "I know- I know that you haven't told anyone in your civilian life about _everything_ , and that it's good for you to be able to talk about it if you want to, and you're probably not getting enough hugs, and I would miss you too, obviously, and-"

Chat Noir couldn't help but grin. Ladybug was babbling, which meant that she was nervous about something but not something bad. He knew her well enough by now to know that if it were bad, her words would be punctuated by long silences and nervous lip-biting. "Uh-oh. Here comes the word vomit."

"-it's not _fair_ that- _hey!_ It's not- I'm not-"

Ladybug spluttered as Chat Noir laughed. "You _are_ babbling. I'm not going to bite, my Lady. You can spit it out."

Ladybug let out a huff, her tensed shoulders finally relaxing. "Ugh. Okay. _Fine_. So anyway, I didn't want you to lose any support or not be able to talk, so I got- I got permission from Tikki and Master Fu to reveal my identity to you so that we can still see each other. I don't want you to feel any pressure to reveal _your_ identity," she added hastily as Chat Noir's jaw fell open. "Like, if you want to come over to my house in a trench coat and sunglasses and a hat to hide your costume, that's fine. But I want you to know where to find me if you want to talk about anything, or just hang out, or- or anything, really."

Chat Noir nodded, swallowing. He hadn't been expecting a reveal tonight, but this- he had been hoping to learn Ladybug's identity for a while now, but he had all but given up hope that it would happen any time soon. "O-okay."

"I'm just a bit nervous about it," Ladybug admitted, giving herself a little shake. "Give me a minute."

"It's just me, my Lady," Chat Noir reminded her, stepping forward to give her a quick hug. "Nothing to be nervous about here."

"I know, it's just- no one besides Master Fu and my kwami knows my identity, and I'm not used to transforming in front of people." Ladybug squared her shoulders, then closed her eyes. "Okay. Tikki, spots off!"

Chat Noir shielded his eyes as a pink flash lit up the rooftop. As soon as it faded, he lowered his arm and then a grin split his face.

"Oh, of _course_ you're Ladybug," Chat Noir chuckled, reached forward to scoop his detransformed partner up into a hug. "Of _course_ you are. Who else could it be? You're perfect."

Marinette's cheeks flushed pink in the moonlight. "I- I'm-"

"I saw you on TV, working to persuade people not to dig about Hawkmoth's identity," Chat Noir told her, burying his face in her hair for a long moment. Of _course_ Marinette was Ladybug. She had been protecting him in _and_ out of the mask, throwing absolutely all of her energy into it and going above and beyond to keep him safe. "And I heard rumor that you were in charge of organizing to have people who support us in the area to get interviewed for TV."

"Lies and slander," Marinette said primly, sticking her nose up in the air. She gave up the charade after a second. "I had help from Pollen and Trixx and Wayzz. They staked out at the main TV stations and let Tikki know if they heard anything about interviews, and then I sent out mass emails to my contacts with the where and when and which station, so people knew what to look for."

Chat Noir grinned. That was his Ladybug, always the planner.

"You know where I live, right?" Marinette asked, snuggling back into his hug. Her arms twined around his waist. "If you want to come at night, you can just come in via the balcony. I can hide a key for you up there. And I could give you my phone number, too, so I can know if you're coming over. Or Plagg could probably look it up, too, on your communicator."

"Right," Chat Noir agreed happily, instead of telling her that he already _had_ her number. He wasn't _entirely_ sure why, but he wanted his secret for just a little bit longer. He hadn't come to their meeting expecting to reveal his identity, and he just wanted a little time for the idea to sink in. "I know where you are. I've visited you before, _princess_."

"Of course you have. Your kitty nose came sniffing around for treats." Marinette grinned up at him, and how had he not made the connection before? That look was pure _Ladybug_. "Now you can come 'round for the treats _and_ the company."

"I came for the company before, too!" Chat Noir protested, knowing full well that she was kidding. Marinette knew that he enjoyed her company. "And to be your model, too, on more than one occasion."

Marinette giggled again, squeezing him in a hug, and the two of them ended up sinking down to sit on the rooftop together. Chat Noir pulled Marinette into his lap- after all, his suit protected him from the cold, rough rooftop and she wasn't transformed- and the two of them spent nearly an hour there on the rooftop, talking and just hanging out before finally deciding that they had to go home.

Chat Noir was practically bubbling with happy energy as he headed home, slipping through the window back into his room. Detransforming, he spun around the room before flopping down on his bed. "Ladybug is Marinette!"

"Surprise," Plagg drawled, landing next to him. "No wonder she was willing to get into a fight with Alya over the whole Hawkmoth identity thing."

"Right, because she personally knows me." Adrien rolled over to look at Plagg as a thought hit him. While most of Paris had only found out about Hawkmoth's death several days after Mr. Agreste died, Ladybug- _Marinette_ \- had learned about it less than 36 hours later, and knew for a fact that she had found out about it within that timeframe because they had _just_ met up the day before everything happened. "Plagg- she knows that _Chat Noir_ lost his father at the same time as _Adrien_ did. There- there's no way that she _doesn't_ suspect that I'm Chat Noir, is there?"

Plagg snorted. "Yeah, I bet she has her suspicions already. There were too many similarities there for _Ladybug_ to ignore. But I'll also bet that she's been doing her best to ignore them until you decide to reveal yourself, so you can at least feel like you're in control of that information."

Adrien could only grin helplessly, still over the moon about- about _everything_. Marinette was so thoughtful, and kind, and gorgeous, and of _course_ she was Ladybug. How did he get so lucky?

Even with as late as it was, it took him a while to settle down enough to fall asleep, too caught up in thoughts about Ladybug. Once he finally _did_ drop off, Adrien slept well for the first time since his father's death, dreaming about ladybugs and going on a picnic in the park with Marinette at his side. He woke up late, rolling out of bed with a smile and a leisurely stretch, one goal in mind.

"I think I'm going to go over to Marinette's house today," Adrien told Plagg as he got ready for the day. "I just- how could I _possibly_ stay away?"

Plagg considered him. "Are you going over as Adrien or as _Chat Noir?_ "

Adrien just smiled, checking his reflection in the bathroom mirror before heading out into his room. "I'm both, aren't I?"

"That's not an answer!"

Half an hour later, with breakfast eaten and his school things packed up in his bag so that they could at least _pretend_ to study, Adrien headed out the door with a wave to the Gorilla. He headed through the streets on the familiar route to Marinette's house, going around the park instead of through, avoiding all of the families hanging out and enjoying the sunlight. Lazing in the sun sounded fun, of course, but he had a bit of a different place to relax and enjoy the sun in mind, up on top of a certain bakery with a lovely dark-haired girl by his side. It didn't take long to reach the bakery, and Mrs. Cheng let him in at once. With a fresh croissant in hand, Adrien headed upstairs, excitement replacing the last bits of lingering anxiety with every step.

They were Ladybug and Chat Noir. They had closed one chapter of their life now with Hawkmoth's death, and now they could move forward together. Maybe there would be bumps in their road and times when things got tough, but they could handle anything together.

With a smile on his face, Adrien rounded the last set of stairs and came face-to-face with the door. With one last deep breath, Adrien moved Plagg to his shoulder, raised his hand-

And knocked.

 _Fin_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end! It's been super-fun getting to explore a fic that isn't my usual fare (though I gotta admit that there was a lot of fluff at the end :D gotta get it in there somehow.
> 
> As always, reviews make my day! :)

**Author's Note:**

> What is this, me doing something actually somewhat angsty? Impossible. Never. :D This is a three-parter story, because it got hella too long for a one-shot-style piece (and also I wanted to break it up a little).
> 
> As always, reviews make my day!! :)


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